1921 | Catching Einstein in an Error

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An editor is supposed to keep reporters from making mistakes in print.

In 1921, Carr V. Van Anda, the managing editor of The New York Times, kept Albert Einstein from making a mistake in print.

Among many coups attributed to Mr. Van Anda, a cold fish in person but a dazzling polymath in practice, were The Times’s scoop on the sinking of the Titanic and the exposure of forgeries made by the pharaoh Horemheb, who claimed to have created a stele that was in fact the work of Tutankhamen.

Even though The Times wrestled with how exactly to convey this theory (imperfectly and inadequately seemed to be the answer), its overall coverage of Einstein was surprisingly thorough for a general-interest newspaper. And Mr. Van Anda kept a watchful eye, over his pince-nez.

Einstein delivered a series of five lectures at Princeton in May 1921. He spoke in German. His remarks were then rendered in English by Prof. Edwin P. Adams, a physicist. Before the account from The Times’s correspondent could be published, however, Mr. Van Anda hesitated.

He had found an error.

A query was relayed from The Times to Dean Christian Gauss at Princeton, who picks up the story:

“I called up Professor Adams ... and told him that Mr. Van Anda was of the opinion that one of the equations was incorrect. Adams looked up his notes and said: ‘No, that is what Einstein said.’ I told Adams that I took Mr. Van Anda very seriously. Adams worked at the matter a little, called me back and said, ‘I am going to call up Dr. Einstein. I think perhaps Van Anda is right.’ ”

“When Einstein was consulted he was very much surprised, looked up the matter himself and then said, ‘Yes, Mr. Van Anda is right. I made a slip in transcribing the equation on the board.’ ”

Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger spoke for quite a few people at The Times when she said, in her 1979 memoir: “For anyone to have caught the great Einstein in a mistake was astounding. The instance added to the Van Anda legend.”

And didn’t take much away from Einstein’s.

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Transcribed copy of a letter written Nov. 13, 1934, by Dean Christian Gauss of Princeton University to Russell Owen, a New York Times reporter.CreditThe New York Times